Television camera equipped with continuously-variable-speed electronic shutter function

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EP 0 510 865 A3

(12)	EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88)	Date of publication A3:
	08.09.1993 Bulletin 1993/36

(43)	Date of publication A2:
	28.10.1992 Bulletin 1992/44

(21)	Application number: 92303339.3

(22)	Date of filing: 14.04.1992

(51)	International Patent Classification (IPC)⁵: H04N 5/235

(84)	Designated Contracting States:
	DE FR GB

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Priority:

24.04.1991 JP 94428/91

(71)	Applicant: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
	Kadoma-shi, Osaka-fu, 571 (JP)

(72)	Inventors:
	Kogane, Haruo Kawasaki-shi (JP) Mimura, Hidetoshi Yokohama-shi (JP)

(74)	Representative: Votier, Sidney David
	CARPMAELS & RANSFORD 43, Bloomsbury Square London WC1A 2RA London WC1A 2RA (GB)

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References cited: :

(54)	Television camera equipped with continuously-variable-speed electronic shutter function

(57) A television camera equipped with a continuously-variable-speed electronic shutter function which can control the charge-storing time of a solid-state image sensor and an amplifier so that a video signal follows the optimum light amount for a subject at high speed and with high accuracy. A shutter-equipped image sensor (1) which is controlled by a shutter pulse generating unit (5) converts the light incident from an optical lens (1) into an electric signal. The electric signal, after passed through an amplifier (3) and a signal processing unit (4), is detected by a video level detecting unit (7) as a video level. A shutter control unit (8) holds the shutter amount corresponding to the video level for each field to immediately calculate an estimated shutter amount using a predetermined equation and supplies the calculated shutter amount to the shutter pulse generating unit (5) for each field. A control mode decision unit (9) exclusively controls a gain control unit serving as an AGC and the shutter control unit (8).

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